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19 Eur. J.L. Reform 253 (2017)
Codification in a Civil Law Jurisdiction: A Northern European Perspective

handle is hein.journals/ejlr19 and id is 259 raw text is: Codification in a Civil Law Jurisdiction: A Northern European Perspective Patricia Popelier* Abstract In western civil law jurisdictions, 19th century large-scale codification projects have made way for more specific, technical operations. While several terms for var- ious operations are used - from coordination to consolidation or recasting - they all serve to compile normative texts within one single document for the sake of clarity and legal certainty. A more fundamental distinction can be made between formal and substantial codifications, the one more technical, the other large and funda- mental. Substantial law reforms are problematized in this era of multilevel gover- nance and digitalization. Nowadays, substantial codifications are essentially non- exhaustive, inconsistent, and fragmentized. Also, they rely upon formal consolida- tions, and generate new formal consolidations. While formal consolidations are still treated as logistic projects, more developed ICT tools may enable their transforma- tion into continuous processes. Keywords: codification, types, civil law, legal certainty, ICT. Codification, in its most general definition, is a tool for making the law publicly available by recording it in written texts.' It follows that codification projects are most meaningful where law derives from unwritten customary law or casuistic case law. In civil law jurisdictions written rules have become the main source of law. Therefore, unlike the practice in common law jurisdictions, codification is rarely about transforming established jurisprudence into general written law. An exception is the codification of private international law: while even in civil law jurisdictions this domain was traditionally governed by case law, it has become the object of codification throughout Europe, e.g. in Switzerland, the Nether- lands, Italy and Belgium. With this exception, codification in civil law jurisdic- tions has become mainly a tool for bringing coherence into sets of written laws, which, throughout time, have been amended or have been supplemented by spe- cific rules in separate acts. Thus, the 19th century large-scale codification projects with political significance have made way for more specific, technical operations. In this article, it is examined whether these operations are still suited for their purpose in contemporary society, characterized by multilevel governance and in an age of digitalization. * Professor Constitutional Law and Legislative Studies, University of Antwerp. 1 See the definition by C. Varga, Codification as a Socio-Historical Phenomenon, Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1991, p. i. European Journal of Law Reform 2017 (19) 4 253 doi: 10.5553/EJLR/138723702017019004002

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